Since that fateful day, Van Allen has posted hundreds of TikToks. "Idaho never leaves me without content," she said.

City Cast has a baker's dozen podcast locations throughout the U.S., including Boise. Prior to Van Allen, Boise's podcast was helmed for the past year by local comedian Emma Arnold. With a changing of the guard, City Cast Boise Executive Producer Frankie Barnhill is excited to welcome Van Allen as the new host of the daily podcast, calling her "the political TikTok queen of Idaho." Barnhill said Van Allen will be "bringing curiosity, scathing political critiques, wit and humor" to the podcast.

"We're beyond stoked that Lindsay is taking the microphone to lead the next iteration of the show." Van Allen's first podcast episode on Wednesday, March 13 was about the recent report of the exodus of Idaho OBGYNs. On March 20, she interviewed Mayor Lauren McLean.

Both Barnhill and Van Allen say the TikToks will continue alongside Van Allen's podcast gig, although they may slow down a bit in number.

'I'm an Idahoan'

While she's lived in the Treasure Valley for the past decade, Van Allen grew up in Rigby, Idaho. "I was raised very conservative. My parents' friends were Ron and Maria Nate — they run the Freedom Caucus. I was super-super conservative."

Van Allen said when she first went to college, she was involved in the young Republicans group on campus. But then, she went through a period where she said she did "a lot of deconstructing" in her belief system to sot of do an about face in how she looked at the world.

"I deconstructed my religion — and I deconstructed my political beliefs as well," Van Allen said.

Now married — Van Allen's husband is also an ER nurse — the couple has three kids, 15, 12 and 9. What do her kids think about her TikTok posts?

"They think it's really funny," she said. "My two youngest desperately want to be YouTube famous — I'm living their dreams. And they all tease me when I'm noticed out in public."

How often does that happen?

"It depends," Van Allen said, "on which neighborhood I'm in. I get recognized in the North End, sometimes on The Bench. I've never been recognized in Meridian. … I don't think that's my audience," she deadpans.

Saving lives

Van Allen said when she was a kid, she wanted to be a firefighter when she grew up. "I wanted to save people." She posits that may have been what led her to become a nurse in the first place. 

And while most of her scores of TikToks that have gone viral are political, they're not all political. Her first "really viral" TikTok was a post about her husband's inability to tell where his painting had left off.

"My husband is color blind and we were painting one of our kid's rooms. … I posted that and a company sent us color blind glasses," Van Allen said, laughing. "It went super viral — more than 2 million likes."

Most of Van Allen's early TikToks, though, were about dispelling disinformation around the pandemic and safety protocols, vaccines, mask wearing, etc. In August of 2020, Van Allen moved from working in the ER at St. Luke's to the NICU. "I had had enough of COVID in the ER," she said. But she hadn't had enough of posting TikToks. 

Van Allen said she's gotten plenty of pushback from various conservative groups such as the Idaho Freedom Foundation and the Proud Boys — and has even been shadow banned and had videos taken down from her channel. "But I never got any pushback from St. Luke's," she said. She points out that she's even picked up some fans from her former workplace. For instance, Jim Souza, senior vice president and chief physician executive at St. Luke's Health System; "he follows me. … I wear that as a badge of honor," said Van Allen.

TikTok go

Van Allen said while creating TikToks might look simple and easy, in reality, each of her short posts requires a lot of planning and work. "I do all my own research, I write all my own scripts," she said. "I'll read through an entire bill several times. I'll consult with lawyers. I want to make sure everything is accurate." 

She usually spends three hours prepping, to boot, plus about 45 minutes to film. What ends up being a one to one-and-a-half minute video "probably took five to six hours to create," Van Allen said. It took a lot of practice, she said. Getting it all down "was a process. I look back at my old ones and I'm kind of embarrassed," Van Allen said, laughing.

But when she does look back at everything she's done, she sees an inter-connectedness, that everything she's done is intertwined and a part of her overarching journey to raise her voice to help others. 

"Advocating for my patients taught me to find my voice," she said. "TikTok taught me how to use my voice to advocate."

Starting a new voice

Van Allen said she was at first hesitant about tossing her hat in the ring for the job at City Cast Boise. "I had a friend alert me to it. The listing said they were looking for a comedian or a journalist. I said, I'm neither — I don't think I should apply." But her friend urged her on. "You're funny — your TikToks are funny."

So, Van Allen took her friend's advice and she pivoted — she hung up her nurse's stethoscope and traded it in for a microphone. And the rest, as they say … .

Van Allen said she is "super-excited" to be starting this new chapter, this new career. She said while a lot of stories on the podcast will be of general interest, such as food and events, she also pitches lots of politically based story ideas because she is concerned about all that is swirling in that arena. "I think Boise as a city is in a little bit of an identity crisis right now." 

Van Allen didn't know being the new voice at City Cast Boise was what she'd always wanted until it happened.

"Oh, I love it. This is like my dream job."